


I can't believe this is happening

by percythepaladin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Guilt, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Whump, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Keith/Shiro (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Sad Ending, Sad Lance (Voltron), Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28809645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/percythepaladin/pseuds/percythepaladin
Summary: Lotor has been safely contained in Castle. But instead of sending other minions to retrieve him, Honerva just needs one weapon used at the right time. Shiro.She waits for her moment.It's nighttime, and Lance is watching Lotor. Everyone else is getting some much-needed sleep. And Honerva is ready to make sure Voltron is never a problem again.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 30





	I can't believe this is happening

**Author's Note:**

> Lots of Keith whump and sad Lance and brainwashed Shiro.
> 
> I'm primarily a screenwriter, so I tend to write down the page instead of in text blocks, but I promise I'm working on it!

The deep, lullaby of a hum coming from the core of Castle is the only reason Keith has been asleep as long as he has. It's familiar. Constant.

The cold hiss of his door opening is not. 

He stays still with his eyes closed. Options: Lotor escaped. Lance is here to tell him that Lotor escaped. No, it's been a few hours. Maybe Pidge is here for a shift change. Or it's morning, and Hunk cooked breakfast? Wishful thinking. All this before he can turn over and open his eyes.

When he does, it takes him a moment to register Shiro standing there.

“Shiro? What’s up?” Shiro doesn’t respond. Keith sits up. He hasn’t even bothered to take off his dark clothes that signal his allegiance to the Blade. “Is it my turn to watch the asshole in holding or something?”

Shiro is still for another eerie, silent moment. Then, he mumbles something, maybe nothing. The words are garbled, quiet, and meaningless.

Then, Shiro moves toward Keith with an aggression that makes him flinch. Quicker than Keith can register what’s happening, Shiro is on Keith, grabbing him by the neck and shoving him out of bed and to the ground. 

“Shiro!” Keith scrambles up and across the room, trying to get his bearings. Is this a nightmare? He would be lying if he said he hadn’t had them before.

“What’s going on, man?” Shiro’s eyes are empty and cruel. 

That’s not Shiro. 

But whoever it is clearly has Shiro’s strength. Keith learns this as Shiro sends a fist toward Keith’s face. Keith tries to block it, but it crashes through his hands and lands on his left eye socket.

Something cracks. Blood pours into Keith’s eye. He tries to wipe it as he staggers backwards in shock. He evades a couple thrown punches from Shiro as he clears his vision. This fighting, it’s not what Keith is used to from his friend, his leader. It’s slower but with a growing intensity that makes Keith more nervous by the second.

Shiro stands between Keith and the door now, but Keith has worked his way toward his blade, stashed at the head of his bed. As he dodges another flurry of attacks, Keith manages to grab it and holds it at the ready. It takes him a second to register that he’s holding a deadly weapon and planning to use it against Shiro. But it’s not Shiro. So, when another bout of attacks come, Keith uses the blade as deterrence as much as he can.

“Lance!” Keith calls out as loud as he can. “Hunk! Pidge!” Swings come from both sides. A kick strikes him in the gut. It knocks the wind out of him. He coughs, allowing another kick past his defenses in the moment of weakness.

“Allura,” he gasps, weaker this time. Shiro stops for a moment, holding his right hand out. He examines the metal prosthetic like he’s seeing it for the first time. Keith clocks this momentary distraction and rolls past Shiro and toward the door. At the same moment, Shiro’s hand transforms into its glowing purple form. 

As Keith crosses the threshold, Shiro comes down on him with his glowing, deadly hand.  
“Shit!” Keith barely dodges the attack, feeling the heat of the hand as it swings past. Keith spins around Shiro and sweeps one of his legs out from under him, getting him to his knees. Keith risks dropping his knife to pull Shiro’s arm backward with one hand and press down on Shiro’s shoulder with his other, wrenching his arm in a disgusting angle. For the moment, he has Shiro pinned.

“Shiro! Stop! Why are you doing this?”

Shiro doesn’t respond. Keith can feel his breaths coming fast and short. He feels his pulse where he grips Shiro between his shoulder and neck. He feels the heat of Shiro’s built-in weapon radiating from somewhere above his head.

“Talk to me. What’s going on?” Keith adds the slightest pressure to Shiro’s shoulder, desperate to get anything out of him. Shiro mumbles again. Keith can’t understand a word. Then, slowly the mumbling turns into words, but it’s not Shiro’s voice Keith hears. 

The twisted and tortured voice that comes from Shiro’s mouth is Haggar’s.

“The others died quickly. You could have too.”

Keith’s heart stops. He feels like he’s going to be sick.

“Haggar?”

“I see you’ve met my slave, paladin. The body is still learning how to take commands.” Almost on cue, Shiro’s body fights against Keith’s grip.

Keith dreads to ask, but he has to. “What did you do to the others?”

“I already told you. Shiro murdered them in their beds.”

Keith has to hold it together. She could be lying. He can trap Shiro in his room and go find the others. They’re fine. They’re all fine. That’s what he has to believe right now.

And he can’t stay here forever. He has to make a move of some kind. He just has to keep him trapped in that room for a minute.

Keith takes a breath. Then, risks pulling Shiro to his feet. One step at a time, he maneuvers Shiro back toward the room. “You’re gonna be okay, Shiro.” Without warning, not even tensing a muscle, Keith spins Shiro out of his grip and to the ground. Then, he slams his hand on the entry pad, sending the doors sliding shut.

Unfortunately, it isn’t fast enough. Shiro gets his metal arm in between the doors just in time. Keith sends a kick through the opening, smashing into Shiro’s face. Shiro doesn’t even react, though his nose starts spouting blood. Keith kicks again. This time, Shiro is ready. He latches onto Keith’s leg with his glowing hand. Keith hears the sizzle of his skin burning before he realizes what’s happening. Finally, the pain registers and Keith’s leg gives out. He collapses to the ground.

Shiro uses his arm to wrench open the doors and slide out into the hall with Keith before they hiss closed behind him. He looks down at Keith whose back arches slightly in pain. Keith who is trying to blink away black spots clouding his vision. The handprint left on his calf has burned deep into his skin.

He registers Shiro standing above him.

“Please, stop,” he gasps.

“Begging for your life is very heroic.”

Keith tries to back away, but his injured leg won’t cooperate. “Please, don’t make him do this.”

“Isn’t that sweet. Worried about the meat suit. Don’t worry paladin, the Shiro you know is long gone.” 

Shiro swings his glowing hand down at Keith. Keith barely gets his hands up in time to stop it. He grabs onto the hand, desperately trying to stop it from meeting his chest.

In seconds, the fabric from his gloves melts into the skin of his palms. Keith screams. The burn gets deeper. Deeper. Through the intense pain, the smell of his own skin burning, Keith meets Shiro’s eyes. Just for one more second, he tries to find Shiro. Nothing. His hands can’t stand it anymore. The muscles give out. 

Keith tries to roll out of the way, but he is too slow. The hand, Shiro’s hand, plunges into his chest, cutting through muscle and bone with ease. Keith tries to suck in a breath, but it doesn’t come. So much pain. Even with his burned hands, he pulls at Shiro’s shirt, tries to claw at his face. A feeble last attempt.

Shiro pulls his hand back and stands over his conquest. Keith struggles for breath. One foot scrapes against the ground, trying to find anything to hold onto.

Finally, mercifully, Keith passes out. Short breaths are all that are left and soon those slow too.

“One to go.” Haggar’s voice fills the emptiness. It poisons the air. Shiro walks away, without a glance back.

Keith heard her. He opens his eyes. Everything is blurry and dark, but he sees Shiro walking toward Lotor’s cell. Towards his only friend left alive.

But there is nothing left in him. He tries to tell his body what his heart wants. To get up and go save them. Or at least yell, scream, something to warn them. 

All he can do is lie there and wait to die. Through the sound of blood rushing in his head, he hears a thumping. Is it his heart finally slowing down to a stop? Or is it Shiro’s hands killing another one of his friends. Keith realizes it’s neither as a figure runs up to him from the opposite direction.

It’s Lance. There aren’t words to describe what Keith feels. Lance is still alive. 

“Oh, my God.” Lance slides to his knees next to Keith. He goes to inspect his hands, his leg, his chest. Lance doesn’t even know where to start. “Keith!” Keith’s eyes are unfocused. He can’t quite wake up anymore.

“Who was that?” Lance asks as he tries to wipe the blood away from Keith’s eye. There’s not blood anywhere else. Even the extensive, fatal damage has been cauterized.

“We need to get you to a healing pod.”

“No.” It’s strained. Lance winces at the sound of Keith’s voice. Keith rests the unburned back of his hand against Lance’s arm. He comes around enough to command Lance’s attention. They lock eyes and he gasps out one word. “Run.”

“What?! I’m not going anywhere!” Lance stands and tries to pick up Keith under his arms to drag him to the pods. Keith tries to choke down a scream, but he can’t. 

Lance stops. He lays Keith back down.

“Run,” Keith begs again. 

“I can go get help.”

“All dead.”

“Everyone? You’re sure?” Keith only nods slightly in response. The effort of speaking is too much now.

Lance’s face goes pale. Keith imagines he looked similar when he found out. 

“Who did this, Keith?” Keith shakes his head this time. Keith doesn’t want Lance to ever know what happened. Better for Lance to believe Shiro died with the rest of them. Much better.

Keith can feel the blackness creeping in from the edges of his vision. Lance can tell. Keith is slipping. Lance doesn’t want to risk hurting him by moving him, but he has to do something. He carefully pulls Keith’s torso onto his lap. His head is cradled against Lance’s arm. Lance just wants to hold him and comfort him as he goes. It’s all he can think to do. 

Keith is grateful not to be alone. He turns his face into Lance’s chest and savors the last few breaths, using one to repeat his dying wish. “Run.”

It takes Lance a moment to realize Keith is gone. 

He chokes on everything he’s feeling at once. How can he run? All his friends are gone, dead, and he would just get away without a scratch? No.

Lance lowers Keith’s body to the ground. Then he stands and starts to follow after the killer. It only takes him a couple steps to hesitate. When he turns around and looks at Keith’s body, oh God his body. Lance has to take a knee to stop from falling over. 

He wants to be brave. Lance wants to avenge his friends. He can be the hero, but is it worth it? Is it worth him dying? Lance hates how cowardly that sounds. Is it worth living? If this is survivor’s guilt already making him sick, he wants none of it.

But Keith begged him to run. To live. 

Lance looks down the hallway he came through, toward escape, past Keith. He looks in the direction the killer ran. He has to be sure he has all the facts before he makes a decision. He walks past Keith to the other paladin’s rooms. He has to be sure.

Each door he opens brings a new wave of grief. The ache of total loss replaced by specific, unbearable pain. Keith was right. They’re all dead. Except for him. 

Lance hears Keith in his head. “Run.”

Keith would never run. Lance knows that, but he is not Keith. And Keith is dead.

Lance stands in the hallway, paralyzed. Caught in between duty and fear.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first published fic! And yes, I did choose to go back in time and write Voltron fic bc I love it. Hope y'all liked it!


End file.
